Ligature (writing)

Glyph combining two or more letterforms The letters ⟨s⟩ and ⟨t⟩ combined to create the ligature ⟨st⟩ Wood type sorts with ligatures of (from left to right) ⟨fl⟩, ⟨ft⟩, ⟨ff⟩, ⟨fi⟩; in 20 Cicero = 240 Didot points ≈ 90.2328 mm (typeface Futura bold condensed) In writing and typography, a ligature is the combination of two or more graphemes or letters into one glyph. Common examples include: Combining a and e into the ligature ⟨æ⟩ Combining o and e into the ligature ⟨œ⟩ Combining f and i into the ligature ⟨fi⟩ Combining s and t into the ligature ⟨st⟩. The ampersand ⟨&⟩ symbol developed from a ligature that combined the handwritten Latin letters e and t (spelling et, Latin for and). History The earliest known script Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieratic both include many cases of character combinations that gradually evolve from ligatures into separately recognizable characters. Other notable ligatures, such as the Brahmic abugidas and the Germanic bind rune, figure prominently throughout ancient manuscripts. These new glyphs emerge alongside the proliferation of writing with a stylus, whether on paper or clay, and often for a p